Reformation Dbq Apush

The first sights of Reformation in the United States slowly sprung up at the beginning of the 19th century, the most notable time being 1825 to 1850. The push towards reformation ran alongside the Second Great Awakening. Various Reform movements, predominantly temperance, women’s rights, penal institutions, utopian experiments and education attempted to spread democratic ideals.

The American Reformation focused a lot on improving the common man, turning sinners and drunkards back to productive society members. The church, influenced by the second great awakening, saw it as their mission to reform said sinners. In 1834, Charles G. Finney claimed, “When churches are... awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvations of sinners will follow” this spread the democratic ideal that with the reformation of the churches comes the reformation of man, proving that once again religion and church play an important role in achieving an effective society.

One of the more radical reform movements would be the struggle for women’s rights. In the 19th century, women became more essential and relevant as they took on jobs as teachers etc. This time became known as the Cult of Domesticity, and its image reflected american democratic ideals. However, even though they had bigger roles in society and weren’t as submissive to their men, they didn’t have nearly the amount of rights their husbands did. At the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton said that since the women are taxed to support the government, they should at least have the right to represent it, or at least be able to vote for who does end up representing it. She also claimed that women had the “right to be free as man is free”, yet still despite all these attempts, the rise of women’s power was a very slow hard journey, and it took about another century before women had the right to vote.

Temperance became an important, and very necessary reform movement. During the 19th century alcohol...